In Arizona, politicians are trying to build a wall on the Mexican border to keep people out. Across the Atlantic, in an industrial city in Romania, a wall is being built to keep people in. The local government of the city of Baia Mare in northern Romania is trying to erect a concrete wall in front of a Roma (Gypsy) neighbourhood. The wall would separate the community from a main road, and human rights groups are saying that it is a government instituted attempt to "ghettoize" an ethnic community. "Such initiatives belong to the Nazi era," the Centre for Legal Resources said in an open letter to Biai Mare mayor Catalin Chereches.

"The idea to separate a community with severe social problems... amounts to institutionalized racism." The Roma, also known as the Romani or Gypsies, form an ethnic group widely dispersed across Europe. Traditionally a travelling community with its roots traced to India, the Romani peoples are oft subject to extreme, institutionalized persecution. Facing de facto discrimination in most European countries, the Gypsy community is economically troubled and many Romani live in slums, shanty-towns or in substandard housing. In the past, these communities have been subject to forced eviction and displacement. Last year, the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca evicted 56 Romani families from their homes in the city centre without giving them sufficient advanced notice. Similar events happen across central Europe. Last month Roma were relocated in the Czech Republic, and in April three Gypsy communities were evicted outside of Rome.

"When the authorities evict Romani communities against their will, without adequate consultation, notice or alternative housing, they are violating international treaties that the government of Romania has signed up to. This also applies to the resettlement of Romani communities to inadequate and segregated housing, " Barbora Cernusakova, Amnesty International's Researcher on Romania, said in a statement last week. Mayor Chereches is denying that the construction of the six-foot high wall is motivated by any ethnic or racial considerations.

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Keeping monetary policy rate will lead inflation towards target

Keeping the monetary policy rate will lead inflation towards target in the upcoming period, said on Thursday the Governor of the National Bank of Romania / NBR /, Mugur Isarescu, on the occasion of being conferred the Doctor Honoris Causa title by the Romanian- American University. 'You will you see that leaving unchanged the monetary policy rate, not its increase, or decrease, will lead inflation in the next period to the target,' said Isarescu, who also referred to those who criticized the position of BNR on the principle 'if you go to the doctor, and he/she does not give you a handful of drugs, then he/she is not a good one. '

BNR Board decided on Wednesday to leave unchanged the monetary policy rate at 6.25 percent for the ninth consecutive meeting (since May 2010), and to maintain the existing levels of minimum reserve requirement ratios on both leu- and foreign currency-denominated liabilities of credit institutions, Agerpres said. This spring, the central bank revised the inflation outlook for 2011 from 3.6 percent to 5.1 percent, above the upper limit of the variation target, of plus / minus 3 percent plus/minus one percentage point (2-4 percent). BNR also revised upwards the inflation outlook for 2011, from 3.2 percent to 3.6 percent. The inflation target for 2011 is also 3 percent plus / minus one percentage point. BNR warns bankers macro-prudential regulations are in store Governor of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) Mugur Isarescu on Thursday warned the bankers that fresh broad-scope regulatory measures will be necessary within short.

In his acceptance speech after receiving the honorary degree of the Romanian-American University of Bucharest, Isarescu referred to macro-prudential policies, a new concept designed to ensure the soundness of the financial system overall and avoid systemic risk and which replaces neither macroeconomic policies (the monetary and fiscal policy), nor micro-prudential policies that deal with the soundness of credit institutions as individual entities. According to Isarescu, the new regulatory approach will take big steps in the coming years; the central bank official stressed that the measures will be effective only if they are consistently implemented in all countries throughout Europe, otherwise banks will resort to outsourcing, for instance, loans in foreign currency.

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Russia condemns Romanian president’s approval of Nazism

Europe must give its assessment to the attempts of Romania’s President Traian Băsescu to justify Nazi Germany’s aggression against the Soviet Union in 1941, the Russian Foreign Ministry insists.

Recently, Mr. Băsescu said in an interview that if he was President in 1941, he would have also sent Romanian soldiers to fight against the Soviet Union on the side of Nazi Germany.

“Nothing can justify such words,” a representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry said, “neither the political conjuncture nor the provocative nature of the interviewer’s questions – the more so that Mr. Băsescu said this on June 22, the day which marked 70 years since the beginning of the Nazi aggression against the Soviet Union.”